Academy Alumni

The music world owes 19th-century violinist Joseph Joachim a tremendous debt of gratitude.This great fiddler was a musical purist who stayed true to the highest callings of his art in an age of virtuosic excess. It was Joachim who, at midcentury, went against the grain to champion Beethoven's celestial but unflashy Violin Concerto. He played it everywhere, composed a cadenza for the first movement that most violinists still play, and saw to it that Beethoven's handiwork would forever be seen as one of the supreme musical accomplishments.

The U.S. Naval Academy has scheduled its biggest fall alumni weekend on Yom Kippur, one of the holiest Jewish days, sparking complaints among Jewish alumni."

Not long ago, the phone rang at the house in the East Texas pine forests where Frank M. Wroblewski was spending a quiet retirement. The caller, a woman from the Naval Academy, told him that photographs of a gold Class of 1963 ring had just arrived at the school, inside an envelope with a Vietnam postmark. The ring appeared to be inscribed with the name Wroblewski. Had Wroblewski, the woman inquired, perchance lost his ring? Wroblewski's memory rewound more than three decades to a sweltering day in Vietnam.

A group of 66 homosexual graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy announced yesterday that it has resumed efforts to start a national chapter of gay graduates that would be recognized by the college's alumni association. The Veterans Day announcement came exactly one year after the group's first formal request, which was unanimously rejected by the Annapolis-based alumni association's board last December for reasons that included geographic disparity. Jeff Petrie, secretary of the San Francisco-based group, said yesterday that he and other gay alumni have spent the past year revising their application to meet the academy's standards for approval.

Naval Academy gives faculty awardsThe Naval Academy has presented its annual faculty awards.Chemistry Professor Boyd A. Waite has received the ninth annual Class of 1951 Teaching Excellence Award; Professor Roger H. Compton of the naval architecture, ocean and marine engineering department, the ninth annual Naval Academy Alumni Association Research Excellence Award; history Professor Philip W. Warken, the first Naval Academy Alumni Service Excellence Award;...

Navy plays Colgate for the Patriot League men's basketball championship Friday at 4:30 p.m. (ESPN) at the Naval Academy's Alumni Hall. The winner advances to the NCAA tournament.Tickets are on sale at the Naval Academy Athletic Association ticket offices or by calling (800) US4-NAVY. Tickets will also be on sale starting at 2:30 p.m. Friday at Alumni Hall. Prices are $10 for adults and $5 for students college age and under.

Trick or Treat on Main Street will be held Thursday, Oct. 27 from 6-8 p.m. Sponsored by the Laurel Board of Trade, shop owners on Main Street from Route 1 to Seventh Street will distribute Halloween candy. Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. The Laurel Police Department and volunteers from Laurel Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association will help keep everyone safe. For information, call Gail, 301-483-0838.

An Army officer from Eldersburg was among five soldiers killed in a helicopter crash earlier this week in Afghanistan, the Defense Department said late Saturday. Capt. Sara M. Knutson, 27, died Monday in Kandahar, the Pentagon said in a release. Knutson was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, Hunter Army Airfield, Ga. Knutson, a 2003 graduate of Liberty High School and a 2007 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, is the first Marylander killed in Afghanistan this year.

The first African-American to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy has died, according to an announcement from the school Wednesday. Wesley Brown started at the academy in 1945, after the first five black men to attend failed to complete their first year there. He graduated 370th out of nearly 800 graduates in 1949, gaining national media attention, and went on to have a 20-year career in the Navy. Brown, who was in his 80s, was a veteran of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, and spent time with the Navy working in various other countries.

Just announced Dark Star Orchestra -- 9:30 Club in Washington Nov. 30-Dec. 1. 800-955-5566 or tickets.com. Trans-Siberian Orchestra -- Verizon Center in Washington on Dec. 16. Also, at 1st Mariner Arena on Jan. 6. 410-547-7328 or ticketmaster.com. Badfish: A Tribute to Sublime -- Rams Head Live on Jan. 4. 410-244-1131 or ramsheadlive.com. Mo'Nique -- Meyerhoff Symphony Hall on Dec. 1. 410-547-7328 or ticketmaster.com. Daughtry -- U.S. Naval Academy's Alumni Hall in Annapolis on Nov. 10. 410-293-8497 or tickets.